This invention is directed to improvements in parcel shipping systems wherein parcels to be shipped are tracked or recorded, the invention being concerned with a system of this type wherein a computer is employed to record the transactions on a record medium such as a disc or the like.
In the shipping of parcels, it is frequently desirable to make provision for shipping by more than one carrier. In current shipping practice, provision must be made for the shipping of parcels by two major carriers, such as the United States Postal System (USPS) and the United Parcel Service (UPS), a private carrier, as well as any of a large number of smaller private carriers. In prior tracking or recording systems, various data concerning parcels or groups of parcels to be shipped were entered by an operator, so that the information could be stored in the records of a transaction disc. The "transactions" recorded on the transacting disc include information relating to the shipment, such as, for example, the identification of the carrier, the number of packages in the shipment, the weight, address data, charges, date and time, invoice number, etc. Factors such as weight were entered either manually or automatically by a scale, while other factors such as zip code were generally entered by an operator by way of a keyboard. Such systems contemplated the provision in the programs of routines that determined shipping costs on the basis of the information that was input.
With respect to the major carriers, prior systems made provision for the reservation of space on the transaction disk for each carrier. With respect to such major carrier, it is conventionally the practice to provide a pickup of all parcels at given times, so that all of the transactions for that carrier could be achieved, i.e. stored on an archive disc and deleted from the transaction disk; as a block, to thereby enable the entry of further transactions. As an example, when the USPS picked up a shipment, the shipment generally included all current transactions recorded on the portion of the disc assigned to the USPS, so that archiving the data to an archive disc and deleting the data from the permanent portion of the disc reserved for the USPS was feasible and practical, and enabled the clearing of the relevant portion of the transaction disc for the entry of further transactions in a simple manner.
While UPS and USPS are currently the major carriers for many shippers, there are a large number of carriers that are frequently employed, and a versatile computerized parcel shipping system thereby requires the tracking or recording of data corresponding to shipments to be made by such other carriers. In view of the large number of such other carriers, however, it is not feasible to record the transactions in the same manner as for the major carriers. Thus, reserving a discrete block of disc memory adequate to handle each of the possible transactions concerning such other carriers is not feasible since insufficient memory exists on the discs for treating transactions concerning these smaller carriers in the same manner as the major carriers. Major shippers require the reservation of individually determinable record space for shipments by the major carriers, and adequate recording space may hence not exist for providing separate files of the necessary length for each of the additional carriers, for example, one to two hundred carriers whose services may be employed at various times.
The difficulty in tracking transactions of the other, or minor carriers, is further compounded by the fact that these minor carriers have varying pickup schedules, so that transactions relating to such minor carriers cannot be combined in a single file that is treated in the same manner as the files of the major carriers. In view of the different pickup schedules, for example, it is not possible to archive a complete combined file relating to the minor carriers, since at any given time it can be expected that at least a portion of such a combined file will be current.